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tommy750 Posts: 1040
10/29/2016
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I know it's a tad south of ABDSP but still kinda the trip everyone likes to take. Headed out a couple weeks ago for a short trip to Baja. My first trip to Baja was Thanksgiving 1977 when my cousin invited me to drive down to Bahia de Los Angeles in his 1st Gen Bronco. Was a great trip and always look forward to heading back. The fiancee and I headed south on Hwy 5 and after a late start ended up spending the night in a $50/night San Felipe motel. After that, she suddenly showed an unexpected enthusiasm for camping and avoiding further similar accommodations  Haven't been to San Felipe since the early 1970's and obviously it's changed. A couple B/Ws from a then 12y/o:
 San Felipe Early 1970s by tomteske, on Flickr
 San Felipe Early 1970s 2 by tomteske, on Flickr
Made it to LA Bay continuing down Hwy 5. Used to be a nightmare past San Felipe but now has fairly standard Hwy 1 type road to Puertocitos and wonderful wide road to Gonzaga Bay. There's still a 25-30 mile gap to Laguna Chapala on Hwy 1 but it should be done in about 1-2 years.
 Hwy 5 Construction by tomteske, on Flickr
Made it to LA Bay and camped on Punta La Gringa. Had a few coyotes pass by several times that night even ending snooping around a few feet outside the truck but couldn't find the camera in time.
 Dos Coyotes by tomteske, on Flickr
The next morning.
 P1000402 by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000407 by tomteske, on Flickr
Drove on to Bahia de Las Animas and stopped at the remains of the Las Flores silver mining operation from the early 1900's. Only a stone jail remains standing.
 P1000441 by tomteske, on Flickr
The road to Las Animas used to be horrible and now it's actually only a little sketchy the last five or so miles.
 P1000448 by tomteske, on Flickr
The last couple miles in the good 'ol days. Kinda reminds me of that silty stretch on EC085.
 The Silt Road to Bahia de las Animas June 81 by tomteske, on Flickr
Bahia Las Animas. You can see the Tundra as a little dot on the beach.
 P1000572 by tomteske, on Flickr
Same place I use to camp in the 1980's and actually looks the same which is kinda weird since every other beach camping spot is now loaded with casitas and keep out signs.
 Bahia de Las Animas Tundra by tomteske, on Flickr
Back in the day...
 Campsite Bahia de las Animas June 81 by tomteske, on Flickr
A local fisherman wandered down the beach to chat and a couple hours later we were out of Patron, beer and low on vodka.  Francisco more than made up for it the next day by taking Sandie and I out to see his tropical fish operation. He and Horacio capture Blue Spotted Jawfish, a sought after salt water aquarium fish for the world market. It's apparently only endemic to mid Gulf of CA locations on sandy flats at 15-30M depth. Horacio dives down to 15-20M and using an "advanced" fishing rig, captures the little guys and places them in small plastic containers. They store them in barrels offshore and when they have about 400 or so fish they head out to Ensenada with the fish in containers aerated with O2 tanks. They get $2.50 per and a quick internet search indicates they're resold in the $100-200 range. Freakin middlemen!
Horacio showing off his advanced rig. He puts a chunk of meat on a barb-less hook and catches somewhere around 50/hr. The internet says the fish do not appear to be endangered. Notice his Scripps tee. He helps them out doing research on sea cucumbers.
 Fishing Gear by tomteske, on Flickr
Old School diving hookah.
 Old Scool Hookah by tomteske, on Flickr
 Blue Spotted Jawfish by tomteske, on Flickr
 Gobio con Puntos Azules by tomteske, on Flickr
Checking their stock before they head to market to make sure everyone is alive. Some die mainly related to getting hooked in the wrong spot.
 Francisco y Horacio by tomteske, on Flickr
A less common angel fish
 Angel Fish by tomteske, on Flickr
Abandoned fishing camp with a interesting arrangement of engine cowls
 Cinco Cowls by tomteske, on Flickr
Nice chapel to the Virgin de Guadalupe.
 Santuario Virgin de Guadalupe by tomteske, on Flickr
Pangas.
 Dos Pangas by tomteske, on Flickr
We were going to spend another day on the other side of Las Animas. All we had to do was cross a tidal flat and then enjoy the pristine dune lined shore. Well, things went south pretty quick and let's just say we escaped from a major disaster in mud much too deep for a heavy Tundra with an incoming tide. Took only about 30 seconds to get this covered in mud and a heck of a lot longer to wash most of it off.
 Close Call by tomteske, on Flickr
Headed back to LA Bay and located a nearby rock shelter with pictos. Several published reports on Cueva Abraham indicate a few pictos but quickly found a few unreported ones with the DStretch app. This is the Northern Abstract Style and is in between our La Rumorosa style and the Great Murals style farther to the south.
 Cueva Abraham by tomteske, on Flickr
 Cueva Abraham2 by tomteske, on Flickr
 Dotted Lines_lds by tomteske, on Flickr
 Flames by tomteske, on Flickr
 Concentric by tomteske, on Flickr
Headed out to visit another Northern Abstract site on our way to Mision San Francisco de Borja Adac. Unlike the occasional faded picto or two we're used to seeing, Montevideo is chock full of amazing well preserved pictos you don't even have to get out of your car er, 4x4, to see. All along this point are literally hundreds of pictos.
 Montevideo Point by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000655 by tomteske, on Flickr
 Montevideo by tomteske, on Flickr
 MV_lre by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000726_lre by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000741_lre by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000813_lds by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000820_lds by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000811_yrd by tomteske, on Flickr
There is at least one picto representative of the Great Murals style at this site since it's right at the borderzone between the two styles.
 Sandie and Great Murals Style by tomteske, on Flickr
 Great Murals_lds by tomteske, on Flickr
About 20-25 miles further south is the Jesuit founded Mision San Francisco de Borja Adac.
 San Borja Road by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000892 by tomteske, on Flickr
 San Borja Cruz Blanco by tomteske, on Flickr
 No Cazar by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000907 by tomteske, on Flickr
 San Borja Nave by tomteske, on Flickr
 P1000946 by tomteske, on Flickr
 Spiral Staircase by tomteske, on Flickr
Daren has a lot of pics of this mission taken before the 1997 renovation. He and his wife made it out on a dirt bike. No memory foam mattress and camp stove?? Yikes!
Can't wait to head back out. Enjoy! Tom
 Cirios by tomteske, on Flickr
edited by tommy750 on 10/29/2016
edited by tommy750 on 10/29/2016
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ziphius Posts: 911
10/29/2016
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Great trip and photos Tom. I'm always amazed at where people used to drive their VW beetles (and managed to get them out every time). Looks like you got into photography at an early age too.
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http://www.coyotelearning.org
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tekewin Posts: 365
10/29/2016
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Wow, cool trip. Thanks for posting the pix.
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sddarkman619 Posts: 153
10/29/2016
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Very cool! The mission is a great site, thanks!
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anutami Posts: 491
10/29/2016
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Epic and amazing trip Tom, Awesome photos as always. Thanks so much for sharing your adventure. I always dream of returning to baja one day like in the way distant past but can't seem to muster up the courage to head way south. Thanks for bringing me along and I didn't even have to cross the border Sure you don't want to put a small pop up truck camper in the bed of your tundra? happy trails
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dsefcik Administrator Posts: 2609
10/30/2016
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Looks like a great trip Tom...I am somewhat envious...since you mentioned my photos, here is San Borja circa 1990 from a motorcycle trip with my wife when we toured BC...can't beleive there is now a road sign pointing the way...haha..and some (dstretched) pictos from San Javier, these are all film of course...
oh, how did **you** get a sunrise photo??
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http://www.sefcik.com
http://www.darensefcik.com
http://www.carrizogorge.com
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
10/30/2016
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ziphius wrote:
Great trip and photos Tom. I'm always amazed at where people used to drive their VW beetles (and managed to get them out every time). Looks like you got into photography at an early age too.
Definitely agree with you on the VW, Jim. Would never drive a 2WD where that Bug has been.
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
10/30/2016
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anutami wrote:
Sure you don't want to put a small pop up truck camper in the bed of your tundra?
Was thinking about adding something. Even though sleeping in the back of the PU is nice, the dust is always an issue and still had mosquitoes buzzing around. Was thinking about a rooftop tent like this: http://tepuitents.com/collections/3-person-roof-top-tents/products/kukenam-sky-roof-top-tent Any thoughts??
Never have had any problems with safety in Baja but understand your concern.
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
10/30/2016
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dsefcik wrote:
Looks like a great trip Tom...I am somewhat envious...since you mentioned my photos, here is San Borja circa 1990 from a motorcycle trip with my wife when we toured BC...can't beleive there is now a road sign pointing the way...haha..and some (dstretched) pictos from San Javier, these are all film of course...
oh, how did **you** get a sunrise photo??
Those are great pics of the mission. A lot more tidied up now than when you were there and there's that fence...
As you well know, wasn't planning on any sunrise pics but the coyotes woke me up right before dawn and couldn't fall back asleep 
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
10/30/2016
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sddarkman619 wrote:
Very cool! The mission is a great site, thanks!
This one, San Javier, San Ignacio, San Luis Gonzaga are the ones I really like. Hear San Gertrudis is another nice one. Tom
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sddarkman619 Posts: 153
10/30/2016
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how old was that mission?
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rockhopper Posts: 668
10/31/2016
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Thanks for the memories! Great trip report and photos. The picto graphs were neat find. My friends and I spent a lot of time in Baja in the 1970's thru the 1990's also. Hey living here in San Diego I was on vacation and didn't even know it and Baja was our other "backyard".! hehe. Baja was like going back in time. I'll add some pics for fun.
This trip was from the 90's
edited by rockhopper on 10/31/2016
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
10/31/2016
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sddarkman619 wrote:
how old was that mission?
It was founded by the Jesuits in about 1762 ( a visita was there a little earlier) and turned over to the Dominicans a few years later when the Jesuits were booted from Mexico. The Dominicans (read Native Americans) built the stone structure in front of the Jesuit adobe mission and "completed"(it was never entirely finished and still missing the bell tower) work in 1801 just in time for imported disease to decimate the native population and result in the mission being abandoned by 1818.
Here's a great book on Baja Missions if you're interested: https://www.amazon.com/Las-Misiones-Antiguas-Missions-California/dp/0826331106/ref=sr_1_9?ie=UTF8&qid=1477946234&sr=8-9&keywords=baja+missions
There's an even newer book which I haven't seen yet: https://www.amazon.com/Baja-California-Land-Missions-David/dp/1495191214/ref=sr_1_5?ie=UTF8&qid=1477946305&sr=8-5&keywords=baja+missions
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tommy750 Posts: 1040
10/31/2016
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rockhopper wrote:
Thanks for the memories! Great trip report and photos. The picto graphs were neat find. My friends and I spent a lot of time in Baja in the 1970's thru the 1990's also. Hey living here in San Diego I was on vacation and didn't even know it and Baja was our other "backyard".! hehe. Baja was like going back in time. I'll add some pics for fun.
This trip was from the 90's
edited by rockhopper on 10/31/2016
Nice pics Rockhopper. We used to camp right around the point from this boat when there were zero houses in the area. Great memories. Tom
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